Exchange Center

ENow Software's Exchange blog built by Microsoft MVPs for IT/Sys Admins.

Planning for Public Folders in Exchange 2013

Image of Michael Van Horenbeeck MVP, MCSM
Michael Van Horenbeeck MVP, MCSM

When designing for a migration to Exchange Server 2013, chances are you’ll have to deal with public folders. Given that Exchange 2013 has been around for a while, you might think such a task would be a proverbial walk in the park. Of course, if you are looking at a cookie-cutter environment, you might be right. However, in every design there are elements specific to the customer that require a different approach.

Read More
diagnostics grid

CPU Contention and Exchange Virtual Machines

Image of Andrew Higginbotham
Andrew Higginbotham

Overview

Virtualization has been around for a while now and its best practices are well known amongst virtualization experts. Unfortunately, as I’ve seen with many different customers, some guidance isn’t followed or taken as seriously as it should. This can be the case when someone who isn’t a virtualization specialist (maybe an Exchange admin or an IT generalist) is tasked with managing a virtual infrastructure.
Read More
Microsoft Exchange Diagram

A Closer Look at the New ActiveSync Redirection Feature in Exchange 2013 CU8

Image of Michael Van Horenbeeck MVP, MCSM
Michael Van Horenbeeck MVP, MCSM

On March 17th, Microsoft released Cumulative Update 8 for Exchange Server 2013. By now, we're all used to the idea that cumulative updates and not only Service Packs have also become a vehicle to introduce new features into Exchange. Hence, it is no surprise that CU8 comes with a bunch of new features and improvements alongside a myriad of bug fixes.

Read More
Mailbox Storage Cloud

Tracking Down Overactive Mailboxes with Get-StoreUsageStatistics

Image of Andrew Higginbotham
Andrew Higginbotham

Overview

Often times I’ll find myself writing a blog post because the topic recently became relevant due to customer need. Other times I spend hours banging my head against the keyboard trying to resolve an issue and would like to keep others from going through the same ordeal.

In this particular case, I found myself thinking of this fall’s release of Apple iOS 8 & some of the traditional unexpected consequences that arose when used to connect to Exchange via ActiveSync.

Read More
Blog listing image

The Future of the Exchange Administrator

Image of Tony Redmond MVP
Tony Redmond MVP

Anyone who runs an on-premises Exchange environment today would be forgiven for wondering how long their job will last, at least in its current shape. The sales pressure from Microsoft and other vendors to influence CIOs to consider moving workloads to cloud platforms increases all the time and the inevitable fear is that jobs disappear once work is transitioned.

Read More
Microsoft Icon

Scripting Agent Cmdlet Extension

Tracy Lwi

Exchange 2010 recently introduced a new feature called "cmdlet extension agents." These agents can be called when a cmdlet is running, and can also perform extra tasks as a part of the original cmdlet. A recent Microsoft article has great information on understanding the Cmdlet Extension Agents. You can see which cmdlet extension agents are available by running this command in the Exchange Management Console (EMC):

Read More
Clearing Autocomplete and Recipient Caches

Clearing AutoComplete and Other Recipient Caches

Image of Michel de Rooij
Michel de Rooij

Anyone who has participated in migrations or transitions to Exchange has most likely encountered or has had to work around potential issues caused by the nickname cache. A “cache,” also known by its file extension, NK2 in older Outlook clients, is a convenience feature in Outlook and Outlook WebApp (OWA) which lets users pick recipients from a list of frequently-used recipients. This list is displayed when the end user types in the first few letters.

Read More